dual eligibles and skilled nursing facilities

Dually eligible individuals are more likely than others to find themselves in low-rated skilled nursing facilities, recent research has found. According to a study published in the Journal of Applied Gerontology, more than 50 percent of dually eligible individuals – those covered by both Medicare and Medicaid – who are admitted to skilled nursing facilities are served by facilities that have low (one or two stars) ratings under Medicare’s five-star quality rating system for nursing homes.  Overall, the dually eligible are 9.7 percentage points more likely than patients not on Medicaid to be served by lower-rated facilities. The education of [...]